4m doses of BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine for EU's coronavirus hotspots
Coronavirus vaccine - Photo © European Union
(BRUSSELS) - The EU Commission reached an agreement with BioNTech-Pfizer Wednesday for the supply of four million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines for Member States in order to tackle coronavirus hotspots.
The EU executive, which says it is following closely the evolution of the epidemiological situation in Member States, says the doses will cover the next two weeks and are to tackle coronavirus hotspots and to facilitate free border movement.
Despite the current reduction in the number of deaths across the EU, due to vaccination of the elderly and most vulnerable people, the Commission is concerned by the development of a series of COVID-19 hotspots across the EU.
This, it says, is caused in particular by the spread of new variants, which are more contagious.
The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has proven highly effective against all currently known variants of the COVID-19 virus.
Regions such as Tyrol in Austria, Nice and Moselle in France, Bolzano in Italy and some parts of Bavaria and Saxony in Germany but also in many other Member States have seen numbers of infections and hospitalisations rise steeply over the past weeks, leading Member States to adopt stringent measures and even in certain cases to impose new border controls.
In order to support Member States in their efforts to respond to these developments, the Commission has negotiated with BioNTech-Pfizer the possibility for Member States to order supplementary vaccines doses. The increase of dose deliveries in March is a result of the successful expansion of manufacturing capacities in Europe which was completed by mid-February.
Four million doses in total will be made available for purchase to Member States, pro-rata to their population. All of these doses will be delivered before the end of March. These doses come on top of the schedule of deliveries currently agreed between Member States and BioNTech-Pfizer.